Press releases

Copeland Elected American Hereford Association President

Cliff Copeland, Nara Visa, N.M., was announced as the new president of the American Hereford Association (AHA) during the Annual Membership Meeting in Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 3.

A Hereford enthusiast since birth, Cliff currently co-manages Copeland and Sons LLC with his wife, Pat; parents, Clifford and Barbara; and Cliff and Pat’s son and daughter-in-law, Matt and Kyla.

Copeland and Sons was established in 1943, and cattle are its only business. The family’s 500-head herd includes 90 registered Hereford females, 80 cows used to produce club calves and 330 commercial Hereford cows.

“I am extremely humbled by being named the new president and I will try my best to be deserving of the honor,” Cliff says. “Demand for our breed is as high as it has been in over 30 years. We have been rediscovered as a great choice to get a hybrid vigor boost out of the nation’s predominately black cow herd, and not lose carcass merit in doing so.”

During his youth, Cliff was a member of the American Junior Hereford Association board and served as president. Committed to helping the breed, Cliff has helped with Certified Hereford Beef (CHB®) promotions in his area.

Cliff served as the AHA vice president in 2012 as well as chairman of the show and sale committee and was a member of the executive, breed improvement and member service committees.

Selected to serve as the 2013 AHA vice president was Steve Lambert of Oroville, Calif. Steve is a second-generation Hereford breeder who was active showing cattle as a youth on the state and national levels. His family owned and operated Creekside Ranch, which was one of the largest Hereford cattle operations in California. Today Lambert Ranch is a diversified enterprise, growing high-quality grain, hay and Hereford and Angus cattle. A Gold TPR (Total Performance Records) breeder, Lambert Ranch has bred several Dams of Distinction.

Steve has served as a director of the California/Nevada Polled Hereford Association since 2002. In addition, he has been very active in local government and other community organizations, including serving as mayor of Paradise and being Butte County Supervisor.

Delegates elected three new Directors during the membership meeting. Curtis Curry, McAlester, Okla.; Jonny Harris, Screven, Ga.; and Sam Shaw, Caldwell, Idaho, will serve four-year terms on the 12-member Board.

Curtis Curry

Oklahoma breeder Curtis Curry has been in the registered Hereford business since 1989.

Curtis and his family reside in McAlester. They run approximately 75-100 females in Okfuskee and Pittsburg counties. They sell mostly private treaty, marketing approximately 40 to 50 bulls per year. Curry Herefords also hosted a BuyHereford.com sale last fall — making the Curry family the first to host its own BuyHereford.com sale. The family has also consigned to most National Hereford sales through the years.

Curtis’ marketing goal is to obtain enough land to increase his herd and be able to have the numbers to host a production sale each year. He’d also like to be able to sell all bulls to one operation annually.

Curtis and his family participate in national shows including the Junior National Hereford Expo, American Royal, Ft. Worth Stock Show and the National Western Stock Show.

He is currently president of the Oklahoma Hereford Association (OHA) and has served on the OHA board for 10 years. He has also served as the Junior Hereford Association of Oklahoma advisor for six years.

Curtis is a member of the Pittsburg County Cattlemen’s Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association.

In addition to Herefords, the Harris family has been producing F1 Brafords, crossing half of their 400 mama cows with Brahman bulls, since 1981. Along with the cattle operation, they also manage timber, annual forages, hay, haylage and row crops including cotton, corn, peanuts and soybeans.

One of the family’s goals is to continue producing seedstock with quality to meet the purebred breeder’s needs and quantity to serve the commercial breeder and supplying both with the information they need to make their selections.

Jonny is currently a Georgia Hereford Association director. Other leadership roles include United Braford Breeders director and former treasurer, former Georgia Cattlemen’s Association (GCA) regional vice president and executive committee member, Florida Cattlemen’s Association member, former Wayne County Livestock Association president, former Southeast Georgia Cattlemen’s Association president, Wayne County Farm Bureau director and Wayne County Supervisor.

He represents GCA on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association property rights and environmental committee, has testified at a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior listening session and has participated in two Washington, D.C. fly-ins promoting sustainable agriculture and conservation.

Jonny and his wife, Toni, have three children and six grandchildren.

Sam Shaw

Sam Shaw, Caldwell, Idaho, has been involved in the Hereford business since birth. His family owns and operates Shaw Cattle Co. The Shaw family has been in the Hereford business for 68 years, and Sam’s children represent the fourth generation involved with Hereford cattle.

The Shaws currently run more than 1,250 cows including registered Herefords, Angus and Red Angus. Two thirds of the Shaw herd calves in the spring with the remainder calve in the fall. The Shaws host an annual production sale in the spring and market 500 bulls and females. They also sell bulls and females private treaty throughout the year.

The Shaws’ breeding philosophy is based on their customers’ needs including production, soundness and performance. They have an extensive artificial insemination (AI) program. All females are synchronized once and then heat detected for a second cycle. They also collect feed intake data using the GrowSafe program. The entire crop of bulls from their fall calving herd is placed in the program.

Growing up, Sam was active in the American Junior Hereford Association, serving as president of the junior board. He represented AHA at the Young Cattlemen’s Conference (YCC) in 2003 and served as chairman of YCC in 2004. He served as the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association purebred council chairman from 2006-2008.

Sam and his wife, Janel, have three children.

The American Hereford Association, with headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., is one of the largest U.S. beef breed associations. The not-for-profit organization along with its subsidiaries — Certified Hereford Beef (CHB) LLC, Hereford Publications Inc. (HPI) and American Beef Records Association (ABRA) — provides programs and services for its members and their customers, while promoting the Hereford breed and supporting education, youth and research. For more information about the Association, visit Hereford.org.